I was going to post this in the Other People Music thread, but then decided that I'd like there to be a Minimoog thread instead. Up to half of our club does not seem to like the thing, so I figured we can discuss why more specifically.

Honestly, when I hear people have negative reactions to this thing, I quickly think of the people that refuse to use an SM57 on a snare drum. The reasoning being that since its been done to hell and back they want something different, whereas the folks that do it say it was almost made for it so why wouldn't you use one.. you know?

So feel free to post videos of how they suck or how they're great, or just ignore me.

So I was lead to a Nomeansno video and this came up as a suggestion. It begins with a well done helicopter turned airplane and then has fun in Eb dorian or whatever and I liked it enough to share with you fine folks.

Let the record show that for the record, Clav is self reporting that he is not high. Metrosonus in addendum would also like to add that dude, that indeed is not, an inhaler.

Offputting cultists aside, here are my issues with Moog in general (even though I have nothing against it), in no order:

- I prefer ROmplers / samplers and CEM / SSM synths as "my sound". The former is simply because of my love of ambiance, pads, dadaist techniques and such. The latter, just because I prefer more of the 80's sound I grew up on. TV shows, worn out VHS tapes of B and sci fi movies, industrial synth pop, post punk etc. would be my influences.

- It's true of many synth demos, and more true for the mini (the one you posted being an exception) since maybe there are fewer, but they don't really show off the synth in all it's range and glory. Most synth demos I've seen tend to be very mid range sounding. That could be for a variety of reasons: recording equipment and technique, playing preference and technique, patches selected and patch programming skill. 99% of what I've heard from the mini (including clone patches on other synths) is the "happy square" sound, which isn't really my thing, nor is it representative of the overall timbre of a synth.

- That is probably by far one of the better mini demos I've seen and major cred to that guy for knowing his way around it. I've only seen another one or two like that that showcased the sound. A lot of demos I've seen include the above point or the typical press a key and select triangle wave type.. boring. Very few people do it, if ever, but I'd love to hear synths mic-ed in rooms over PAs and not wired into the camera. Maybe that's what I like about found and ambient sounds so much, they way they interact their surroundings.

- I wasn't that impressed with Moog's newer stuff, Voyager, Minitaur etc The mother 32 sounded pretty ok though. Those I actually demoed at the store and I have not actually played a vintage Moog for myself.

-However, I do have the opinion that "the sound" people talk about is aged and leaking components in the amps and other things. I have a few stories of my own about balls to the walls sounding Poly 800's I've owned compared to EP's pristine EX800 he sent me. It was like VST vs. the love for these dinosaur synths. I could see the difference, but they were literally the same machines. I've had quite a few discussions about this at GS and I think think the consensus was, in those at least, it was the amp section that was saturating the sound.

Given all of the above, this does not make me want to go out and buy one of these.. just more high pitched plinking and plonking:

That said, all in all, I have nothing against it. From that demo and a few other's I've seen, I can dig it Just not my thing at the end of the day and that's nothing personal

ClavAnother wrote:Up to half of our club does not seem to like the thing, so I figured we can discuss why more specifically.

There's such a thing as great synths that don't gel with your personal style, and that's what I would throw the Minimoog under.

I have no problems with the Minimoog sound (it is a great sound), and people do great things with it. I would certainly accept it if a free Minimoog dropped on my lap. Definitely not the current $3000-$4000 they go for. The sound doesn't exactly grab me as much on a *personal* level as it does for some. And I *have* played one (albeit only briefly) so I'm not just going on *just* demos here.

I've gotten along much better with Minimoog-*inspired* instruments, the Waldorf Pulse is one. That Roland SE-02 sounds also more in my boat. I think I like a little more "bite" or "sharpness" in a mono, for a lack of a better term. There's such a thing for me as too buttery smooth.

Many synths are like that, they have a certain sonic character, and in the end, you like it or not at some level. Some are more polarizing in opinion than others (certainly there's plenty of people, for instance, who really dislike the Alesis Andromeda sound... whereas I like it quite a heck of a lot.)

Is what it is.

One last note, that Behringer D demo is not terribly representative of what I would call the Minimoog sound (Clav's is more what I think of). In fact, this is the thing I wonder if Behringer's going to miss: the Minimoog's *design* is very playable. If you know how to keyboard, the Minimoog seems made for folks to drop into bands with it and be able to instantly do leads and basslines and whatnot. I think you're going to loose quite a bit of that when you shrink it into a Euro size package, it will take some work to set up that same sort of playability. The SE-02 will have that same problem, and in fact this is an issue with this whole trend of tiny desktop synths.

Retro, to the point of the aged components, it makes me think about the hundreds if not thousands of recordings of minimoogs from the seventies and eighties when they were in spec. The thing was everywhere and sounded great.

That has more of an electric piano vibe to it though.. but damn thats smooth...

I was going to say about the boutiques, could it be that they're still trying to hit that microkorg "I want to sound like the postal service" market? I can't imagine that bigger cases and knobs (especially from china) would put it into a higher price point.. Korg even hasn't had any micro anythings in a while..

Meet "indie pop", circa 2003. Christ, this song is 14 years old. In a few years I'll be expecting this as the lead-off for some retro era genre show on Netflix.

From what I've heard the Elektron Monomachine and Machinedrum defined this group's lone album more than Microkorg. But it is true that "Little Phatty + Microkorg" was sort of a "standard indie setup" thing back in the 2000s.

I do kind of blame the Korg Microkorg success, which I never really got, for this trend of small cheap hardware boxes today. But the success was probably due in part to Big Keyboard being overkill for the typical music of today. Few people solo anymore, few people play "big stabs & pads", etc. So many shows now have Apple laptops doing backing tracks and a couple of musicians just doing a few supplementary things. (Some genres don't even bother with this nicety and just have, say, a "DJ" dress up in a mask and press play while the carefully crafted fancy video and lights display flashes behind them. Or rappers. Or a bunch of choreographed dancers. Or *gasp* rappers *and* choreographed dancers...)

I think the Boutiques are going for the 1980s nostalgia crowd more than the indie crowd (the SE-02 might be an exception). Although, 1980s nostalgia is kind of a current thing, so that makes sense. (See: Stranger Things, also on Netflix, and the whole "synthwave" movement of the indie scene)

I was being facetious, but that's what I meant in a nutshell.. some sort of "looking back" crowd or scene.

The thing with the microkorg was that it had the MS2000 in it, which was enough in and of itself, but it also had that cute, casio, yamaha found at a thrift store vibe that worked well for that kind of stuff.

It's true though..synths and players are niche now. You go to GC or Sam Ash and it's all stage equipment. Digital pianos, organs etc. Everything else there is computer driven and controllers. There's stuff out there for sale, but they don't stock it in the store. I guess they figure we're more in the know and will buy off line anyway and the stores cater to live performers and people who make beets. I mean I love a good borscht, but damn. It'd be nice to play something in a store for once again..

Ok. Well I don't like that style. Also micromorg had an unprogrammable ms2k in it? Wow. And furthermore I think GC must stock that way based on your location. In Chicago there are still many players and product on the floor.

Which makes me very interested in how the Behringer Mini clone and the SE-02 perform in the real world. That sound for 500 dollars is a lot easier to justify

I don't know if it's just me but the SE-02 seems to sound more like a Voyager than a Model D... and the Behringer seems a bit harsh on the high end. They still sound better than most other analogs in that price range tho